Happenings
The Campus Chronicles: How the trivago HQ came to life
Since being founded in 2005 by three friends from university, trivago’s growth has been rapid. In just over a decade, we have gone from a garage startup, to a team of over 1200 people based in four offices across Europe. But, it is the German city of Düsseldorf that is home to over 90% of our talents.
Under Construction
Just last year our Düsseldorf HQ was spread over three separate buildings in the quiet neighbourhood of Golzheim. But just a few kilometers down the Rhine, in the modern Media Harbour, trivago’s new home was under construction.
“The goal of the Campus was to bring the trivago team closer together in an optimized work environment.” – Peter Vinnemeier, Co-Founder and former Managing Director
Three years ago, the initial concept video for the Campus was released and piqued the interest of both talents and talents-to-be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQikZZIia2k
When designing the new trivago Campus, the company’s values and outlook were the guiding force and are reflected in everything – from the usability, to the design, to the architecture, such as the continuous horizontal lines that mirror our information flow and flat-hierarchies.
The white, minimalist canvas throughout the working space helps facilitate focus, one of the company‘s main values, while the open office design helps encourage active communication and knowledge exchange.
“When envisioning the Campus in 2015, our aim was to create an even more welcoming office. We wanted to create the feeling of being home away from home, while providing our talents with an environment which fostered focus and simplified collaboration.” – Monique Quadflieg, Campus Development team
The next three years flew by as we watched our new headquarters spring up before our eyes. The construction was supported by our own in-house Campus Development and Branded Spaces teams, ensuring our vision for the new trivago HQ came to life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKztOs4sEq4
The Big Move
“The goal of the Campus was to bring the trivago team closer together in an optimized work environment.” – Peter Vinnemeier, Co-Founder and former Managing Director
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Once we were all settled in, we invited local media to see what all the fuss was about. They were welcomed to the Campus by a very special guest, the Mayor of Düsseldorf! After which they were given the chance to explore the building and take some pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6UGyIhjDL8
Life on Campus
“The right space can act as a source of inspiration. It can also help create a comfortable setting, which can in turn facilitate more authentic, open, and honest conversation. In both cases, space can act as a catalyst to help improve efficiency. A modern office should offer an advantage and entice people to come into work.” – Rolf Schrömgens, Co-Founder & CEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8O_cduQoso
The Campus was designed to foster mindfulness and in some cases, purposefully designed to be quieter, with fewer accessories and design elements. These spaces, in turn, leave room for thinking, brainstorming, and concentrating. We have rooms such as the Yoga Room, Prayer Room, and Sleeping Rooms for those looking to relax and take time for themselves between task, plus many common areas where talents can meet and share ideas.
https://youtu.be/EPSUAbCzWW8
The Campus also boasts areas such as the billiard room and activity floor, where we can blow of some steam during breaks or hang out after hours. But for those looking for something a bit more strenuous than table tennis or FIFA, there are multiple places to get sweaty! In addition to the 30+ fitness classes and sports on offer at trivago, the Campus also has a fully equipped gym and a running track on the roof. We are also lucky enough to have a full time personal trainer on hand to help us reach our fitness goals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-5LTzbEIt4
Had enough of the bench press? Well, luckily there is also a space where you can pull up an armchair and train the most important part of your body, the brain! Our on-campus library is open for talents 24/7 and contains over 1000 books to borrow – employees can also request new books that support our core values and promote knowledge growth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmIwXtPuifA
But easily the most popular area in the campus is the ‘Culture Kitchen’. With 11 different dining options, the Culture Kitchen turns ‘what to eat?’ into a very hard daily decision. The food ranges from sushi to schnitzel and curry to casserole all served in a hip cafeteria with a layout to rival top restaurants.
“We wanted to create an office restaurant like no other company had.” – Monique Quadflieg, Campus Development team
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A little known fact about the Campus is that many of the meeting rooms stem from ideas proposed by trivago talents. Employees could submit room concepts themselves, through a company Slack channel which we used to collect employee suggestions and requests. The concepts were then voted on and the winning ideas were chosen to feature in the Ccampus – a crowd favourite being ‘Green Lung’, which is a space designed to bring nature indoors.
https://youtu.be/nfzoAnkH5xo
“Our Campus captures what truly makes us trivago, and creates many opportunities for inspiration and collaboration. As far as Campuses go, I’m very happy this one is ours.” – Rolf Schrömgens, Co-Founder & CEO
Are you sold on the Campus but want to know more about Düsseldorf? Lucky for you, we have put together a list of 15 reasons to move to Düsseldorf! Did you know we also have three other offices scattered around Europe? Check them out here!
